The atlas statue holding the cauldron is going to be a sought-after bit for sure.

I think the hydra is going to look a lot better with a different paint job and with some of the other kit's bits added. I'll reserve judgement for now on that model. It's one that didn't really need updating though, the current hydra is really nice

Idea for alter of Khaine - instead of having it on wheels like a chump. put a bunch of slaves underneath make it look they they are carrying it. sorry like that staircase throne Xerxes is on in the movie "300"

I think the updated core troops are what I'm most excited about. With a few tweaks I think they will look very good. When the second wave comes with the dark riders and chariot I'll be a really happy camper. I'm definitely going to be starting a Dark Elf army.

Actually the core infantry are a throw back to 2/3 edition, which I was alittle disappointed with since I already painted those guys 18 years ago and sold them before the new ones came out in 2001. The witch elves are awesome though and so is the throne.

Anyone else pick up a Dark Elf book this weekend? I read through it, I like most of the new models (not the Hydra) and I'm looking forward to the rest of the models whenever they come out.

Cold one knights are really good. With ASF and re-rolls it means they will be hitting with a lot and then lances and their new Murderous prowess which allows them to re-roll 1's to wound means they will be wounding with almost everything that hits on the charge. Their cold ones have 2 S4 attacks each as well which will certainly help with the killing.

Executioners are also great. While they don't have re-rolls from ASF they do still have killing blow and the re-rolling 1's to wound when they are wounding on 2+ most of the time is just great.

I love the models for the Dark riders and I think it is very cool that they can have light armour and shields and remain fast cav. I didn't understand why goblin wolf riders were the only other fast cav that could do that. With a 4+ armour save they might actually see combat.

I'm going to be building my army in two 1250 chunks with the first being a fast-moving army of dark riders, cold one knights, scroungerunners and warlocks. The second will feature darkshards (repeater crossbowmen), Dreadspears (spearelfs), and Executioners. I think that will give me the base I need to be able to mix and match and end up with a solid 2500 point army.

Warlocks are amazing - they're cheap for a wizard, and add multiple soulblights to the army (one of the best spells in the game).

The DE magic looks incredible. Word of pain is godly, and makes black horror even better. Shroud of despair is one of the best utility spells around - not great against a few armies, but it will absolutely ruin other armies. Doombolt does a lot of damage as a signature spell. Overall, lots of damage in the lore and that damage is only increased by the lore attribute. Sorceresses getting a built in +1 to cast probably tips the scale for me, making it at least as good as shadows for DE.

Where I think the balance comes is in the magic items. There's a few good choices, but overall, there's no amazing magic item options.

I think there's a lot of hard choices in the army overall, but so far, haven't seen anything hydra broken, and they don't have underpriced core letting them include too much overall anymore. Shooty DE armies will still be super nasty.